no evaluation results were provided. In sum, project-based learning has shown promise in piquing student
interest and improving application of knowledge in
general, but its effectiveness as a technique for teaching AI specifically, particularly outside of the classroom, has not yet been investigated.

Project-based learning also lends itself well to other instructional strategies. For instance, scaffolding is
an instructional framework that can help learners
achieve learning goals in an assisted, often stepwise
manner (Wood, Bruner, and Ross 1976). Broadly, in
instructional scaffolding, teachers provide adjustable
support for learners to enhance learning and promote progressive mastery of material by introducing
new concepts and skills in a systematic manner (Pea
2004). Within a scaffolding framework, imaginary
problems have been used to highlight the larger
importance of learning goals, followed by project-based learning, which can serve to structure specific
learning activities and tasks (Barron et al. 1998). Such
a “problem-to-project” scaffolding approach has previously been found to improve a variety of classroom
learning outcomes (Barron et al. 1998). However, we
could find no evidence speaking to its efficacy for
teaching AI specifically, or for teaching outside of traditional classroom settings.

Real-World Problem-to-Project
Teaching Approach
Building on our prior paper (Sintov et al. 2016), this
article describes our teaching approach, which used a
problem-to-project scaffolding framework. The program began by presenting real-world wildlife security problems that painted a broad picture for why
learning security game and other AI concepts is
important. As detailed in the following sections, we
then used project-based learning techniques along
with instructional support to introduce progressively
complex AI concepts underlying security games,
including probabilistic reasoning, optimization, and
agent-based modeling. We taught these concepts
with a combination of lectures, interactive exercises,
and hands-on games to help learners tie learning
activities to the larger real-world security goals. We
describe our experiences delivering this approach to
several audiences, including: ( 1) students of an urban
public high school; ( 2) undergraduate students at a
large private university; and ( 3) law enforcement officers and rangers who protect wildlife in Indonesia. It
is important to note that although the wildlife security problems used in our program are based on real-world data and input from security experts working